Posts Tagged ‘CBD Restaurants’

You may be familiar with Senso’s Italian Prosecco Brunch on Sundays which I blogged about some months back. In addition to this, Senso has now introduced a Moët & Chandon Brunch, to be held every quarterly. These are the special themes (later months tentative) :

October 2018 – Imperial Brut (by bottle)

December 2018 – Ice Imperial —> 2nd December, it’s this weekend!

March 2019 – Imperial Brut (Magnum)

June 2019 – Ice Imperial

September 2019 – Moet Rose

December 2019 – Moet Grand Vintage

The Moët & Chandon Brunch will feature a Pop-up Champagne Bar in the Courtyard, with free flow of Champagne, red & white wines and beers. If it’s too much work to visit the Champagne bar, do not fret because the waiters come by often to refill your glasses anyway. Senso’s Italian buffet of salads, antipasti, hot mains, pastas, desserts and other Italian classics will be available. And if you are in a party mood, you will like the House Music by Senso’s resident DJ Donat’. Check out this video taken during October’s Courtyard Brunch, it looks like the party atmosphere is going strong! You don’t have to sit in the courtyard though. We sat in air-conditioned comfort indoors.

The next Moët & Chandon Brunch will be held on 2nd December from 11.30am to 3pm and there are but a few seats left. $108++ per person for free-flow alcohol or $68++ for no alcohol. Scroll down for some photos and a video taken at the 1st ever Moët & Chandon Brunch back in October.

Hands up those of you who would love luxuriating in a long Sunday brunch complete with free-flow bubbly? I would too, but such affairs are usually in excess of $100 especially if you are talking about hotel buffets. Here’s a place that comes in at just under $100++ ($98++), not much cheaper but every little bit helps right? The price must be alright because it was completely full indoors when I was there.

Check out Senso Ristorante & Bar, whose Sunday Prosecco Brunch includes a buffet spread of antipasti (such as Normandy Oysters, Prawns, Italian Cold Cuts) and desserts. There are also a few mains to choose from, with no limit on the number of orders. There is also a live station every week, ranging from a Raclette Cheese station to a Roast Beef carving station.

So why Senso? If you want a Prosecco Brunch with a strong focus on Italian food, this is the place to be. They have a huge selection of Italian antipasti such as cold cuts, carpaccio, caprese and lots more. The ambience is also very nice as the restaurant is housed in a cosy heritage shop house. In fact this unique location is one of the reasons Senso has been on my radar for so many years.

Guest chef Joshua Marshall, executive chef of W Taipei will be showcasing flavours from his hometown of Southern California and his second home in Taipei, at The Westin Singapore for a limited time only. Chef Marshall has also worked at The Four Seasons, St Regis, Waldorf and now W Taipei. His wife is Taiwanese, which explains his eagerness to also showcase familiar Taiwanese favourites.

Two restaurants to enjoy these dishes. First, at Cook & Brew, check out this Surf & Turf special :

I first heard about Caffe Fernet from the Business Times. I’m always on the look out for cafes and restaurants with a good location/good view and unblocked views of the Marina Bay and Marina Bay Sands certainly counts for something. Unfortunately Jaime Ee gave the place a scathing review, even if she did generously rate them a 6/10 in the end. I’d always wondered if Caffe Fernet deserved the review they got, but with limited $$$ and no compelling reason to visit given the review, Caffe Fernet was put on my back burner.

But a couple of weeks back, my dear friend ST suddenly suggested visiting Caffe Fernet for our girl’s brunch yesterday, as she had heard good reviews. Wow they must have improved, I assumed, and I agreed to the suggestion! But later I found out, the good reviews were about the views………….*Face Palm*!!! Worse still, I checked out their brunch menu, and found it difficult to pin point exactly what I wanted to order. You know, this predicament often happens when so many things sound good on the menu, and you want to order everything. Unfortunately, it was the other way round. A number of things did sound potentially interesting, but were either vegetarian (I want some meat!) or at the wrong price point.

Fans of Kia Hiang and its famous Claypot Chicken will be glad to know that a second outlet has now opened in the form of Myo Restobar. As the name suggests, Myo is a contemporary looking restaurant, located on the 19th floor of Oxley Tower at 138 Robinson Road. With its industrial decor complete with concrete floors, exposed light bulbs and even a feature wall with actual moving metal gears, you will be forgiven for thinking that this is a new player in the market.

The decor may be done up to cater to younger audiences and the office crowd, but Kia Hiang’s traditional Cantonese favourites will still be available. Most famous would be the Kia Hiang Claypot Spring Chicken. The recipe used at Myo is exactly the same. What is new is that you can also opt for Organic Chicken instead of just the Spring Chicken, for $10 more.

In case you are wondering, there have been other Kia Hiang branches opened over the years, but these have since closed down. What remains is the original flagship at International Plaza, plus the newly opened Myo Restobar. And the name Myo, it is actually “miào” in Chinese.

I was there to check out Myo Restobar a couple of days back. For a restaurant that only opened on 11 December 2017, and for one that isn’t on the ground floor, there was a good buzz going on in the restaurant. A few of the diners were already repeat customers. The menu seems relatively affordable, compared to other Chinese restaurants in the CBD area, although perhaps the dishes are slightly on the small side. But the food in general is very good, and that’s what counts right? Lunch sets are available from $16 onwards.

Scroll down to see the dishes I sampled and liked.

Kia Hiang Claypot Organic Chicken $28

This is definitely a must order whether you are at Kia Hiang or at Myo. It is this signature dish that has kept customers returning time and again for 40 years. The organic version costs $28 but the non-organic version costs only $18. $18 for 1 pot of fork tender spring chicken enveloped in soft cabbage and braised in syrupy secret herbal broth, it is really as delicious as it sounds and it doesn’t have a strong herbal taste. I am told the cabbage has to be braised at a very low temperature for a very long time in order to render it this tender. In fact, you don’t even need to order anything else. Just one claypot of this, plus lots of rice. Comfort food at its best.